An Introduction to Levels of Training

As one gets more involved with eLearning, the question of “what level of learning are you looking for” likely comes up more and more frequently, in one form or another. These sorts of questions generally relate to attempts to classify eLearning and the complexity of its content…which then can ideally be related to the complexity of the development process.

However, these levels are by no means ‘set in stone’; variations abound among agencies and experts. Searching the web for a set standard can be dissatisfying and downright discouraging for anyone looking for an agreed-upon standard.

Always one to be a leader, ICS Learning Group has performed this research – both between our own history and projects and through the readings and reviews of outside resources. The result is out ‘CBT and WBT Levels’ whitepaper, now available on the ICS website.

While it would be terrific if the overall industry adopted these definitions, we do not operate under such grandiose hopes – unique perspectives, experiences, and outliers may well challenge any component of our definition. Our primary purpose, however, is to not only help those involved with a general knowledge search, but also to assist our customers in understanding the process, scope, and costs related to custom eLearning (ICW, CBT, WBT, Courseware, etc.) development.

So, submitted for your perusal, review, and possible agreement (or debate), review our whitepapers at your leisure…and we certainly hope they help you along the path to solid, well-defined instructional courseware.

Authorware and OS X

Adobe’s Authorware product was a mainstay for computer-based training development for years. While the ascent of web-based training, distribution issues, and the rise of Flash led to Authorware’s retirement in 2007, it remains a viable product for some projects (i.e. kiosk-based training). However, without support from Adobe, challenges mount with advances in the underlying Windows and Mac operating systems.

While Macromedia discontinued the Mac version of the authoring tool with version 4, it retained the ability to convert Authorware applications for playback on Macintosh systems up through the last release, version 7.02.

Apple’s dramatic transition from Mac OS 9 to OS X (10) in 2002 brought substantial changes which posed a problem for existing Mac applications. To address these concerns, Apple included a virtual environment, Rosetta in several versions of OS X (10.0 through 10.6) which allowed properly packaged Authorware applications to function on the newer Macs.

However, with OS X 10.7 (Lion), Rosetta support has been completely removed. Thus, any application created with Authorware will no longer function under that version, and subsequent versions, of the Mac OS. The only workaround is for users to install virtual environments, such as Parallels or Sun’s VirtualBox, with an installed Windows OS. This is unlikely to be a reasonable option for general consumer products, however.

Authorware continues to work well under the latest Microsoft Windows environment – from the authoring system to local and web published products. However workarounds are increasing, third-party Xtras and U32s are slowly losing functionality, and who knows  what other challenges will be faced with new versions of Windows…

If you have any existing Authorware-based courseware you need converted to a new architecture, be it Flash or HTML5, we here at ICS Learning Group can help guide you on that transition.

Adobe Captivate Quirks

We recently assisted a customer who was having difficulty with Adobe Captivate and their desired LMS reporting. Quick research showed this an issue with Captivate where;

1. Setting quiz slide responses to go to one page for a Correct response and a different page for an Incorrect response was unreliable – occasionally these quiz slides seemed to just ‘continue’ instead of branching properly.

The fix: Use Advanced Actions to customize the progression. Use the Captivate variable, “cpQuizInfoLastSlidePointScored” to get the score of the last quiz slide and base the redirection on that value (your quiz slide will need a point value, of course).

2. Similar to a previous blog post, where random quiz slides could cause resume issues…which is apparently largely fixed in Captivate 5…however, adding a Retake Quiz button to the quiz summary slide can throw off the resume accuracy again.

The fix: Don’t show the Retake Quiz button. If you want users to easily retake the quiz, but in a custom button which redirects them to the proper slide.

3. A few users have complained about inaccurate scores being sent to the LMS. While this may have been addressed by the most recent Captivate update, this thread from “Captain Captivate” has excellent information on another possible cause, where quiz questions are ‘too long’ on the timeline and learners answer too quickly, resulting in Captivate incorrectly assessing the results.

The fix: shorten the quiz slides to .5 seconds so they properly display and the playback head stops fully before learners answer the question.

Additionally, though not an issue in this one situation, you could try changing out the ‘SCORM Template’ in the Quiz > Reporting preferences from Default to “SendTrackingDataAtEnd”. If you do that, note Captivate will hold all the SCORM data until its closed, which may or may not work out well depending largely on the user’s internet connection speed and the LMS capabilities…but it’s another option to try if you’re getting incomplete test results.

Android ICS and Flash

As hinted in Adobe’s announcement that it would stop developing the Flash Player for mobile devices, the next official version of Android will be supported, but that’ll pretty much be it.

In ‘Android Update Keeps Flash Advantage’, Forbe’s reports, “Google‘s Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS will receive Flash support, sustaining one of the platform’s biggest advantages over iOS for a bit longer.” And Pocket-Lint seems to have had an official line from Adobe with a bit more detail.

Additionally, as also hinted in Adobe’s previous releases, there remains the option for OEMs to continue Flash development for their own specific platforms. RIM is currently pursuing this path for their playbook, according to The Register, “RIM has negotiated a deal with Adobe to continue developing embedded Flash for its QNX-based BBX platform…”

So overall, this means that – as we mentioned in previous posts – Flash is not dead…at least not for a few years…and it is still a viable delivery approach for Android devices. This is a Good Thing, of course, because HTML5 development tools, browser support, and the specification itself are not yet ready for prime time. It’s critical that some method of a true interactive, multimedia experience by continued while HTML5 issues are hammered out.

We here at ICS have been playing with developing apps for mobile devices and have a few ‘proof of concepts’ in the workshop. We know we can deliver a solid eLearning experience and are currently evaluating internal initiatives for developing such courseware. If you are interested in having a mobile eLearning project developed, give us a call!

(by the way, pretty cool that Android's next version is named after our company, no?! ;-)

A Moment of Clarity for Mobility and Flash Development

The web has been alight with rumors and both joyful and angry proclamations after last week’s announcement by Adobe that they will be discontinuing development of the Flash Player for mobile devices, as well as contributing the Flex SDK to an open source foundation. This has ranged from targeted responses to wild chants of ‘Flash is Dead!’

Apple’s decision not to support Flash and the popularity of their mobile devices has indeed forced Adobe’s hand…and with good reason as HTML5 moves ahead aggressively; so why not commit to that platform and allow developers to deliver a true ‘author once, deliver anywhere’ product? After all, Adobe is a company that creates tools and is not just all about Flash.

After letting the discussion continue and some insights from Adobe and the Community Experts deeply involved with the application, let’s clarify some things...

1. Flash is not dead
   Adobe has put forth considerable resources into Flash, it remains the most widely-available player on the market, and there remains a significant advantage to the mature platform. But perhaps, from a business sense, pushing forth on mobile solutions simply isn’t financially sound. While better to use some of the Flash resources to push ahead tools and solutions for HTML5 development. On the other hand, Flash for desktop and laptop delivery will remain strong for years, and that’s the breath Flash will continue to draw.
 
2. Flash is alive for mobile
   While killing off the player for mobile web, Adobe is reinvigorating their support for Adobe AIR – which is a way of packaging Flash applications as ‘Apps’. Mobile devices are all about Apps…and Adobe’s fully on that bandwagon too. There are already mobile Apps created with Flash for both Android and Apple devices. Expect to see that number increase dramatically. Additionally:
• The current Flash Player may never work for iOS devices, but it works pretty great on the Android devices we’ve tested so far, and that player will remain available for future devices.
• Partner companies who DO want to continue the Flash web player will be able to do so. RIM, for instance, may well take on further Flash web player development for their BBX platform.
3. Flash is alive for desktop
   As many Adobe sources have stated (see above links), they remain committed to the Flash platform. The multitudes of tools that deliver to SWF are not suddenly ineffective. There are computers and users out there still running Windows 2000 and IE6! The Flash desktop player will be around for years. While a transition to HTML5 may be inevitable, it’s not coming anytime soon…browsers and the specification itself need time and Flash will continue to work well, if not even better, during the time HTML5 needs to ‘grow up’.
 
4. HTML5 development tools are coming
   Adobe has a rough development tool called Edge, but it’s still very much beta, and still very much limited in what it can do. Nice initial effort though! Other third parties are working on such tools too. Now, how long before those tools will support SCORM export, well, that’s yet another ‘to be determined’ factor. Regardless, much like the early days of HTML, hand-coding HTML5 sites won’t be necessary for much longer. Dreamweaver already has an HTML component and Captivate recently released an HTML5 ‘converter’ (though also very much ‘beta).

In sum, Adobe handled the announcement poorly without any reassurance to the developer and user community that it remains fully invested in Flash as a viable and supported technology. However, times change and software is eventually deprecated in favor of new and better ways to develop projects (see Authorware). These may be the sunset years of Flash, but those are numerous years. Flash remains one of the most rapid and capable methods of delivering everything from full ‘rich internet applications’ (RIAs) to elearning courseware – and we remain excited about the new 3D possibilities in enhancing our training products.

HTML5 has a long way to go in standards, specification, features, and browser support. General predictions see HTML5 advancing to the capabilities of Flash 2 within FIVE years. Entire libraries of eLearning courseware will be developed and themselves outdated by the time HTML5 becomes a pre-teen in terms of Flash capabilities.

Here at ICS Learning Group, we will continue to move with the tides. While we too have significant investment in the Flash platform, our developers and culture are flexible. Many of our web applications already incorporate aspects of HTML (i.e. advanced JS functionality) and as browsers support HTML5 features to make the user experience more of a guarantee, we’ll incorporate those features as required by the project.

Overall, these remain interesting times and we will continue to master those technologies that help us deliver quality and effective products to our customers.

Captivate publishing, course descriptions, and thanks

First, thanks to "eLearningLearning" for picking up the previous blog post on Captivate publishing to the LMS. Second thanks goes to our internal SCORM experts (notably Brian K.) on providing clarity on why our LMS does not pick up 'course descriptions' from published Captivate SCOs...where it does pick those up from Articulate SCOs...

"Course Description" is taken from the general/description/string or langstring nodes within the organization’s metadata node. The [metadata] node can be either directly included (organization/metadata/lom) or referenced as an external file by the organization/metadata/adlcp:location node. It should use it in either case – the structure is the same for SCORM 1.2 and 2004.
(note: all  XML nodes here should be encased in < and > but Blogger's not liking that so using [ and ] instead)


For example:
[organization]
       [metadata]
              [lom]
                     [general]
                            [description]
                                   [langstring]
OR
[organization]
       [metadata]
              [adlcp:location] > points to a new file:
                                                      [metadata]
                                                                    [general]
                                                                           [description]



Looking at what should be a 'typical' Captivate file – all this related information is being placed in the [manifest] node, not the [organization] node....which is why our Inquisiq LMS is not picking up that info for the course description when importing the content package.

Publishing Captivate Lessons for LMS/SCORM Tracking

First, be sure to update Captivate 5 to ver. 5.0.2.630, launch Captivate 5 and select Help > Updates (be sure you are connected to the Internet). There are no updates available at the time of this article for Captivate 5.5, so updating isn’t an option to resolve any potential LMS/SCORM issues with those projects.

Next, for Captivate to track results to your LMS, it needs to have something to track – so be sure to setup a ‘scored interaction’, such as a quiz slide or a custom interaction (any button or hot spot). This isn’t required for all LMS integrations, but is a safe play in most cases.

Once you have a scored interaction in place, the Quiz Preferences (Quiz > Quiz Preferences) need to be setup. At the top of the resulting dialog, check ‘Enable reporting for this project’ then select the ‘Standard’. We’ll focus on SCORM here, though Captivate does support AICC reporting as well.

Selected the related ‘Manifest’ option and choose your preferred SCORM version (1.2 is generally fine for most projects, though selecting 2004 does allow some additional flexibility).

For our Inquisiq LMS, and likely for many others, what you enter in the Course and SCO ‘Title’ fields will be reflected within the LMS as the Course and Lesson titles themselves. Identifiers are generally not shown in the LMS and, while ideally should be unique to the lesson, aren’t a primary concern and should not affect overall tracking results.

Depending on your LMS, the Course Description field may carry over to the course listing on importing the SCO so users can see the description within the LMS itself. Inquisiq R3 does not yet support this metadata from Captivate (though it does import Course Descriptions from Articulate).

Check other settings that may be applicable to your lesson; for example, Captivate 5.5 has a ‘Template’ option next to the ‘Manifest’ button which, when clicked, allows a ‘SendTrackingDataAtEnd’ option. This can get around issues some LMS systems have with tracking interaction data properly. Otherwise, the scope of the other options and the effects on LMS tracking are not included in this article…

Once you ‘OK’ the Manifest settings, then select how you want the status to be reported under the ‘Report Status’ section. These settings usually work well assuming you just need a simple ‘complete/incomplete’ or ‘pass/fail’ and a percentage score… However, some LMS products expect specific combinations, so you may want to try different combinations of these report settings first if your LMS results are not what you’d expect.

Finally, under ‘Reporting Level’, select whether you want to just report the score or if you want to report ‘Interactions and Score’. Selecting the latter will allow the lesson to send interaction data (such as how the user answered a specific question, whether they answered it correctly or not, and what the correct answer should be). Note that not all LMS products support interaction data, so setting this option to ‘Report Score’ only may be a good troubleshooting option if your LMS has problems with the Captivate lesson.

When this Quiz Reporting section is complete, check the Quiz > Settings option (to the left) and ensure the options there meet your quiz requirements. The default settings are generally fine, but this is yet another section where you can adjust settings should the lesson not function as expected in your LMS.

If you selected ‘Pass/Fail’ in the Quiz Reporting section, you’ll want to check the Quiz > Pass or Fail section next. Generally, if ‘Completed/Incomplete’ is chosen for the Captivate project, the lesson will be marked ‘completed’ if the user visits every slide in the lesson (per ‘Choose Report Data > Slide Views only’). However, if ‘Pass/Fail’ is selected, that status depends on the user’s score…and that dependency is set in this Quiz > Pass or Fail section.

Check the ‘Pass/Fail Options’ and adjust the passing percentage as preferred.

Your LMS/SCORM tracking options are now set, so File > Publish the project to a SCORM package for uploading into your LMS. Be sure the ‘Flash (SWF)’ option on the left is selected and ‘Zip Files’ is selected in the Output Options section of the Publish dialog (Note: if ‘Zip Files’ is not already selected, that may be an indication that your Captivate project does not have any scored interactions and, thus, Captivate doesn’t have a way to track the lesson…so it is not assuming a .zip SCO package is required).

In sum, there are a lot of options with SCORM and Captivate doesn’t necessarily make them all clear. As time permits, we’ll do a bit more documentation of the options and variations to help ensure your lessons are tracked as needed. Of course, due to variations between LMS products, nothing is guaranteed…but we can certainly ensure your lessons track properly within Inquisiq!